Remote Internship Story:  Šejla Karić (LEGS '20)

QUESTIONS:

What did you do during your internship? Can you describe a typical day at work?   

During my internship at IPI, I worked mostly on media monitoring, drafting statements for IPI’s website, and helping prepare content for IPI’s Twitter account. One of my daily tasks was media monitoring. Each day, together with other interns, I would monitor the latest developments in the media freedom field, focusing on a region that had been assigned to me. Apart from that, each day was different. Depending on what was happening in the world, each day I was assigned one of the most pressing cases from that day or week. I conducted research and prepared draft statements on these cases. Occasionally, I was assigned to write in-depth articles on a certain country or issue. I also conducted interviews with journalists and other media actors. Frequently, I was given a chance to conduct research and produce a written piece on a topic or a case of my own interest.

How did the internship help you implement your previous experience and your knowledge gained at CEU?   

I attended many courses which helped broaden my knowledge on the topic of media freedom. Since IPI is one of the world’s leading press freedom groups, this internship presented me with many opportunities to implement this knowledge and experience. Primarily, this internship was a great opportunity to apply my knowledge on international and regional human rights frameworks and implementation mechanisms. I also had a chance to use my legal research and writing skills, through writing statements for human rights advocacy purposes. The knowledge I gained at CEU on media freedom issues and threats to journalist safety, helped me conduct media monitoring tasks efficiently and to accurately recognize patterns of media freedom violations.

What did you learn through this internship? How will you build on this experience in your career development? 

The internship with IPI was an invaluable learning opportunity for me. It helped me get a better grasp of the challenges faced by media outlets and journalists when performing the task of gathering and disseminating news globally. Through this internship, I also further developed the ability to manage in-depth investigations and analysis of the political and legal aspects of press freedom issues. Moreover, it helped me understand how an international NGO functions, what issues media freedom advocates encounter every day, and what tactics they employ to help preserve media freedom worldwide.  

Consequently, this internship has been a remarkable career development opportunity for me. It helped me realize that I want to pursue a career in the media freedom field. Thus, after completing this internship and my studies at CEU, I went on to do an internship in the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, which is still ongoing. In the future, I plan to continue using acquired knowledge and skills to advocate for independent media and media freedom internationally. 

What is your advice to current students who are thinking of doing an internship?  

I would strongly recommend using this amazing opportunity that CEU offers. If you would like to get some experience in the field you are passionate about, or to see, first- hand, how an organization whose work you are interested in, operates, there is hardly any better way than through an internship. An internship might seem like a lot to manage on top of everything else, but  I assure you that it is very much possible.  If you choose an organization whose mission you truly align with, you will look back on your internship as one of the highlights of your time at CEU. Plus, you will very likely, make connections in the field of your interest, and that can only be helpful down the road.